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A. W. Tozer on "Lion Country"

By
Randy Alcorn
| August 15, 2011

“The devil goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

A.W. Tozer (1897–1963) has been one of the great influences on my life since I was a new believer, as a teenager. I fed on Tozer as a young Christian, and still today God speaks to me through his writing. Why? Because it is saturated in Scripture, and has such a big picture of God, and the nature of true discipleship. Tozer writes clearly and cuts to the core of walking with God.

Besides being a gifted writer and thinker, Tozer served as a pastor. He once said this to his congregation in Chicago:

I have never given more time and more pain and more prayer to any other series of sermons in my ministry.

Because of their importance, I have literally felt Satan attempting to thwart the purpose of God. I have felt I was in raw contact with hell.

….I would rather have it this way than to have to admit—as some will have to admit—to having spent a lifetime preaching the Word of God and yet never having met the devil once in open combat!

In my preparation, there have been struggles and combat, moans and pains. I think this is the conflict of Jesus being re-lived in His people.

…But, I will tell you something—it is a delightful thing when you know that you are close enough to the adversary that you can hear him roar! Too many Christians never get into ‘lion country’ at all!

If you haven’t yet read any of Tozer’s books, I recommend The Knowledge of the Holy, a fabulous book on the attributes of God, which is my favorite nonfiction book of all time.